The moon hung low, full and glowing, a silvery eye watching from above, as if it already knew how this night would end.
Zaria stood barefoot on the stone circle at the center of the Silver Fang Pack grounds, the cold biting into her skin, but not as deeply as the fear clawing at her heart.
Her 18th birthday.
The night the Moon Goddess would reveal her mate.
Every wolf dreamed of this moment ,finding the one their soul was tied to. For Zaria, a rogue raised on the outskirts of the pack, it had always felt like a fantasy meant for others.
But when her eyes met Kael's, the moment everything stopped,her breath, the wind, the whispers -she felt it
The bond. The pull. The truth.
Mate
It slammed into her chest like thunder. Her knees trembled. Her wolf howled in her mind, aching to go to him, the powerful Alpha, the leader of the pack that barely tolerated her presence.
Kael's golden eyes burned with something unreadable.He stepped forward.The circle of wolves around them gasped and murmured.
Zaria's voice came out as a whisper. You feel it too… don't you?Kael stared at her for a long moment. Then his lips curled not into a smile, but a sneer.
I, Alpha Kael of the Silver Fang Pack,he said coldly, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade,
reject you, Zaria of no pack, as my mate.The world shattered.
Zaria didn't feel the ground fall away she became the fall. The mate bond snapped inside her like a breaking bone, searing white-hot pain through her chest, her soul, her wolf.
She gasped, clutching at her heart. Her legs buckled.
Laughter and gasps rippled through the pack.
Pathetic rogue, someone muttered.She really thought he'd choose her?But then,Strong arms caught her.Leon, Kael's twin brother. The Beta. The one who had always watched her quietly from the shadows.
Don't touch her! Kael growled, but Leon ignored him.He looked down at Zaria ,her trembling frame, the tears pooling in her wide, broken eyes.
You didn't deserve that, he whispered, his voice tight with something close to fury.
At the edge of the gathering, hidden behind the trees, an old seer watched with glowing eyes. Her lips moved in a whisper that only the moon could hear.
The prophecy begins. Two Alpha hearts. One cursed soul.And the Moon shall decide who lives… and who burns.
---
To be continued…